Chapters Creatures Great and Small
The train ride up to Vanhoover was exhausting, especially since the girls were so excited for what lay ahead. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were positively bouncing off the walls of the coach, and their playful energy soon infected the rest of the scout troop. Fluttershy definitely had her hooves full trying to keep them all under control, with little success. They all settled down when the conductor entered, sitting up straight in their seats and behaving like well-mannered little fillies; as soon as he announced Vanhoover as the next stop and left the coach, however, the girls' exuberance kicked into full throttle, and they were giddily jumping around once more. Fluttershy meekly threw in the towel and buried her nose in a magazine. She hoped that volunteering to chaperone this field trip hadn't been a mistake.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had worked hard to help their troop fundraise for this trip. In fact, it was rumored that Pinkie Pie had bought so many boxes of cookies off them that she intended to ship them out to everypony she knew as early Hearth's Warming gifts. Cheerilee was their next-largest buyer, both because she wanted the kids to go on a fun, educational field trip, but also, allegedly, because they paired well with the copious amounts of wine she bought from Berry Punch. This was coming from town gossips, of course, but one never really knows. Tree Hugger also bought quite a few boxes, usually at the same time every few days.
Once the scouts had raised enough bits to take the trip, they began looking for chaperones. Applejack had to pick up the slack on the farm while Big McIntosh was away on his honeymoon, though she realized that her sister had earned this reward, and so gave her blessing to the field trip. Rarity was busy with a big commission from a client in Manehattan, Rainbow Dash was on call with the Wonderbolts, Pinkie had to babysit the Cake Twins, and while Twilight emphasized how much she would've loved to go to a museum with them, she was wrapped up with business in Canterlot regarding the Princesses' transfer of power.
By default, that left Fluttershy, who was more than happy to volunteer. It had been a long time since she'd gotten to look after the CMCs, whom, despite their mischief in the past, she actually considered quite a delightful group of fillies. Besides that, Fluttershy had never been to Vanhoover before, and valued the chance to visit someplace new. She had figured that looking after a few extra fillies wouldn't be much trouble.
Little did she know that she was the only volunteer, and that there were ten of them.
In addition to the usual scouting troop of eight, a couple of other fillies, Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, had been newly recruited prior to the fundraiser. Fluttershy knew them only tangentially, through Twilight, but they were proving to be just as high-energy as the rest of the fillies. Clearly, they had long since patched up their friendship issues that Twilight had helped with, as they stuck together on the whole ride like the closest of friends.
All of a sudden, the train began to slow and lurch to a stop. The faint details of a train station could be seen through the steam from the smokestack, and the fillies' excitement reached fever pitch. Fluttershy hovered to the front of the coach and performed a quick headcount, then helped the girls get their luggage and exit the locomotive.
"So this is Vanhoover!" Sweetie Belle proclaimed as the green-clad guides followed Fluttershy in single file through the city.
"I ain't never been here before!" said Apple Bloom "But this is where my Grand Pear moved back when my parents got married. I wonder how much has changed since then?"
"The sidewalks here are so wide and smooth! I should've brought my scooter!" Scootaloo trotted happily along, buzzing her wings.
From further back in the line, Fluttershy could hear Tag-a-Long, the senior-most scout in the Ponyville troop.
"Miss Fluttershy, with all due respect, are we lost?"
"Um..." Fluttershy muttered, turning the map this way and that in her wings. "Maybe. " Fluttershy wasn't used to exploring large cities without somepony around who knew the lay of the land. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to traverse Manehattan without Rarity as her guide. She adjusted her Filly Scouts beret and looked about; when all else failed, she knew, one could always ask for directions. With ten little fillies trailing behind her, she approached a portly Earth pony stallion waiting at the crosswalk. He was short, with a short mane and tail; he was yellowish-brown, sported a large mustache, and wore a sweater vest.
"Excuse me," Fluttershy said in her usual gentle manner "would you happen to know the way to the natural history museum?"
"Ah!" he said, his ears perking up. "How convenient, I work dere!" He spoke in a heavy accent that Fluttershy couldn't quite place. He extended his hoof in greeting to her, trying his best not to spill the tray of coffee cups balanced on his back.
"My name is Diggs! I'm de assistant director at de museum! You must be, eeeehhhh….. Butterpie?"
"Fluttershy." The yellow mare corrected him. "It's nice to meet you."
"We've been setting up for de Filly Guides' visit all dis week! C'mon, I'll take you to de museum."
It was just another five minutes of walking before the scouts reached their destination: the Natural History Museum of Vanhoover. The building towered above them like a giant box of red brick, its entrance adorned with white marble columns presiding over the grand staircase. It was renowned Equestria over for its collection, which included just about anything one could imagine from the animal and plant kingdoms, as well as countless minerals and relics of ancient cultures.
Diggs led them up the stairs and through the double doors; Fluttershy barely managed to keep the fillies from rushing ahead of her. In the main lobby stood a spindly Pegasus mare, maybe a decade older than Fluttershy, but still full of youthful charm. Her coat was somewhere between lavender and grey, and her curly, purplish mane was pulled up in a coif. Thin spectacles rested on her snout. She was engaged in conversation with a matronly unicorn, burgundy in color and wearing the uniform of a Filly Guides troop mother; behind her, a herd of at least fifteen fillies frolicked and leapt about, laughing and playing with glee. Fluttershy assumed that Ponyville was a small enough town that its troop could function reasonably well without a permanent troop mother.
Diggs greeted the two mares and slid the tray of coffee onto the base of the large statue they stood around.
"Good morning, Miss Fairweather!" He said jovially. "On my way back, I ran into de Filly Guide troop from Ponyeeville! Dis is Miss, eeeehhhh…"
"Fluttershy." She answered for him. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Yeah, Flottershy!" Diggs added shortly after the fact.
"I'm glad you could make it with your scouts, Fluttershy." The elder Pegasus said, sipping her coffee. "My name is Breeze Fairweather, and I'm the director of this museum. You've already met Diggs, my assistant, I see." She gestured to the unicorn standing nearby. "This is Rose Garden, she leads the Vanhoover troop."
The unicorn shook her hoof in greeting. "It's so nice ta' meet ya! And I see you've got a fine group of fillies here!"
The CMC playfully stood at attention and saluted, smiling. Tag-a-Long took her place beside them, and it was clear from the number of buttons on her sash that she was the more prolific scout.
"Yes, they're quite the bunch!" Fluttershy proudly added. "I oversee them now and again, and they're usually a good-mannered group of kids."
"I can see this one is quite the skilled little camper." Rose said, pointing to Tag-a-Long, who smiled proudly. The CMC deflated slightly as the attention left them. "This is my junior officer, Cherry Sweet."
A small Earth pony, about the Crusaders' age but still diminutive, trotted up beside her troop mother. She was deep red, much like a cherry, with a geometric pinkish mane and amber-colored eyes that cast a gaze far too serious for a filly her age. Even though she was smaller than them, the CMC couldn't help but feel a little intimidated.
"Ma'am," she said with a stolid salute "whenever Miss Fairweather is ready to start the tour, I can have this rabble whipped into shape in ten seconds flat."
"She seems more like a Cherry Sour to me. " Apple Bloom whispered to her friends.
"Oh, come now, dear; there's no need ta' be so serious on the troop's special day. Have fun, you've earned it!" The troop mother replied. "I don't wanna see an uptight little pony today!" She playfully poked the filly's cheek with her hoof, and Cherry allowed herself a heartfelt--if extremely brief--smile.
"Speaking of which," Fairweather spoke up. "I don't see why we can't start the tour now. After all, we've got lots to see!"
The fillies in the room burst into excited cheering and prancing. Fluttershy gently gathered the CMCs, along with the other fillies in her group, into a neat little herd of cuteness, awash with bright eyes and beaming smiles. Meanwhile, Cherry Sweet turned on her hooves and curtly approached her troopmates.
"TROOP! "
The Vanhoover fillies immediately ceased their youthful revelry and snapped into two columns of seven, like little pastel soldiers. Cherry took position at the head of the company and waited for marching orders.
Rose Garden simply rolled her eyes.
"That filly needs to learn ta' have a little fun." She murmured to Fluttershy with a gentle smile. "She's a wonderful scout and an excellent junior officer-- but she's not very good at... just... bein' a kid! I'd swear that scouting is her life!"
"What better place to start off," the museum director began "than right here in the front?" She gave a sweeping gesture to the large statue standing before them, which previously, nopony had paid much attention to. It was of a Pegasus stallion dressed in explorer's clothes flying amongst foliage. He had a spiffy handlebar mustache and a sharp, intelligent look in his eyes; despite this being a marble statue, it had been crafted with great detail, so much so that it was likely the pony himself had posed for it.
"This museum was established over 100 years ago by my great-grandfather, Finder Keeper, a Vanhoover native who devoted his life to studying the natural world and ancient cultures, and spent many years exploring the far-off wilderness beyond Equestria." Fairweather's crystal blue eyes gazed with pride towards those of her ancestor. "Every generation since has upkept this museum and added to its collection. While I'm afraid I'm more accustomed to the archives rather than the field, it still makes me proud to carry on his legacy along with my family. As a matter of fact, there are some exhibits in this museum that are new additions--they've been here less than a month! Would you like to see them?"
The fillies collectively called aloud their excitement.
"Then follow me on a trip through the wonders of nature and history!"
Fluttershy chuckled to herself as they followed their host into the heart of the museum. Twilight really would've liked such enthusiasm for learning.
Aside from the Buckball Hall of Fame, Fluttershy hadn't really been to any museums in her life, so she was fittingly astounded by all the things Miss Fairweather's family had amassed in this grandiose place. The fillies eagerly trotted past everything from bits of pottery or old weapons from long-lost cultures to miniature recreations of ancient temples or cities, with Fairweather narrating all the while. Every so often, a filly or two or three would stop and ooh or aah at something behind the glass, causing the rest of the group to pause for them to catch up. Sometimes Cherry Sweet would roll her eyes at this, but Rose Garden would put a hoof on her shoulder and remind her to smile and have fun.
The group stopped for a moment in the Hall of Antiquities, which was near the front, and allowed everypony to look around at their leisure while Fairweather and Diggs planned out the rest of their exhibition. Fluttershy allowed herself to wander around a bit and take in the sights, occasionally helping a filly who didn't know how to pronounce a certain word or lifting her up for a better view. She came upon Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, who were looking intently at various gemstones, as well as the jewelry made from them.
"Wow! Imagine walking around town wearing that! " Toola Roola said, planting a hoof against the glass. She gestured towards a sparkling necklace, with rounded, deep blue opals set in a pattern amongst real silver, which had been polished until it was nearly blinding under the light in the case.
"According to the card," Fluttershy said, peeking in-between the fillies "it was created at the turn of the century for a famous actress, and it was meant to resemble a piece that belonged to Princess Platinum a millennium ago."
"What's this?" asked Coconut Cream, pressing a small red button on the wall. Suddenly, a projector on the ceiling powered to life and cast its image above the button, playing a short film about how gemstones are cut and polished for jewelry-making. As the narrator's voice buzzed out of a tiny speaker, Fluttershy felt something tugging on her tail. Turning around, it was Sweetie Belle.
"Fluttershy, come look at this!"
"Yeah, it's a little creepy!" called Scootaloo from across the room.
Fluttershy approached the exhibit that the CMC were crowded around, and she understood what they meant. Behind the glass was a skeleton--still partially entombed in earth--of a zebra chieftain and the items he'd been buried with; among them, beads, dried herbs, colorful, if now faded, bird feathers, and a small stone warhammer.
"Dont'cha think it's a little weird seein' somepony's real bones out on display?" Apple Bloom inquired.
"Oh girls," Fluttershy patted them gently with her wings. "I know it may seem a little odd to see a skeleton laying around, but it's different in a museum. Once somepony has been gone long enough, looking at their bones can actually be important if you want to learn about their life."
Suddenly, Tag-a-Long had propped her forehooves up on the ledge next to Apple Bloom. "Yeah! Like, for instance..." The Filly Scout proceeded to read aloud the placard presiding over the chieftain's remains.
"These remains of a zebra stallion were unearthed in the Neighgoroneighgoro Crater during one of Finder Keeper's expeditions, and they are estimated to be nearly 1,000 years old. From the items he was buried with, it is evident that this stallion was a chieftain, and would have ruled over an area within what is now Zanzebrar. Wear on his teeth and calcium on his joints indicate his advanced age, and small punctures in his hooves seem to indicate that the Zanzebrari had developed some form of horseshoe by the time of Luna's banishment, though this zebra was either not buried with any or they weathered away with time before he was exhumed. "
"...Y'know we coulda just read that ourselves if we wanted to, right?" asked Apple Bloom bluntly. Tag-a-Long's face briefly became stern and pouty before the two turned away from each other. Fluttershy was trying to think of something to say when she noticed Cherry Sweet standing by herself, looking intently at another exhibit. She decided to go over and try to introduce herself.
"You're Cherry Sweet, right?" she began. "I'm Fluttershy, the chaperone for the Ponyville troop."
"Ma'am." Cherry Sweet gave a quick tip of her cap without looking away.
"I just noticed that you don't seem as... enthusiastic as the other fillies is all." Fluttershy continued. "Is something... wrong?"
"With all due respect, ma'am, some ponies prefer to be left alone." Cherry gave a brief glance at her interlocutor. "I can only take so much of my troop's frivolity, ma'am. Miss Rose would be the first to tell you that they are very silly ponies."
"I think they're just trying to have fun, don't you think?" Fluttershy softly smiled, trying to be friendly. "After all, that's what children do best."
"Some children, I suppose." Cherry continued examining every aspect of the exhibit before her, reading every placard. "I find enjoyment in my own pursuits, ma'am. Scouting is one of them. I'm very proud of what I do, and I don't let childish games get in my way."
Fluttershy looked around for Rose Garden, but she was across the hall, reading to the filly perched on her shoulders. The yellow Pegasus sighed and decided that she probably wouldn't get through to Cherry, at least not now. Instead, she thought, maybe she'd humor her; after all, she seemed very interested in this exhibit.
"What are you looking at there?"
"It's a diorama of the ancient city of Timbucktu, ma'am." Cherry replied, her eyes scanning the scene sternly, as though she were an omniscient ruler surveying her people. "Look how neatly the streets are laid out, the buildings, the market stalls, the decorative plants... nothing is unruly, nothing is out of shape... it's the closest one can come to perfection."
Fluttershy's brow creased in a look of mild concern. She hoped that fillies like Cozy Glow were once in a century.
"Do you... like history?"
"I believe that it should be learnt, lest it be repeated, ma'am." Cherry ran her hoof along the woodwork before her, wiping off dust. "It's a shame that this city eventually fell to the changelings. King Orion sure knew how to run a tight ship, a skill I seek to emulate with that unruly bunch." She gestured back over her shoulder without turning to look. Fluttershy observed several fillies at play, excited just to be there. She turned her eyes back towards Cherry Sweet, then backed away slowly. The filly didn't say a word, keeping her eyes on the miniature city bustling with little plastic ponies.
The next section of the museum would prove to be Fluttershy's favorite: the Hall of the Animal Kingdom.
The Filly Scouts were beside themselves as they explored a room filled with taxidermy animals from across the world emerging from fake foliage and pools of silicone water. Everything from lions and elephants to cockatrices and cragadiles were on display. Diggs made the children laugh by feigning distress and putting his head in a lion's mouth. Sweetie Belle stood on Apple Bloom's shoulders while she held Scootaloo aloft next to the herons, both equine and avian appearing to take flight. On the opposite side of the hall, Cherry Sweet was again by herself, examining in awe the careful intricacies of a cutaway termite mound. Quietly, Rose Garden approached from behind and put a hoof on her shoulder, and the two shared a smile.
Meanwhile, Tag-a-Long, holding Fluttershy by the wing, escorted her around the exhibits and shared her own knowledge of the animals, which, she pointed out, had been useful in earning the Wildlife Guide merit badge. Most of it was information Fluttershy already knew, of course, but she could tell that Tag-a-Long was eager to impress an older pony, and so Fluttershy played along like a good scoutmaster.
Fairweather hovered near the ceiling, taking turns bringing fillies up to look face-to-face with a giraffe which stood to one side of the room. The spotted creature was an adult male, standing 20 feet tall and presiding over every other animal in the exhibit. Fluttershy brought Tag-a-Long up to the giraffe's eye level, where Fairweather held a filly from the Vanhoover troop.
"When a giraffe is born, the calf falls six feet to the ground!" Tag-a-Long playfully remarked.
"I guess we can't blame them if giraffe babies cry, then!" Fairweather replied with a smile.
"Fall?" asked the filly in her forelegs. "Why would the stork drop the baby from so high up?"
"Stork?" Tag-a-Long inquired. "I think you're a little confused. You see, babies come from--"
"OKAY! I think it's time we move along to the next exhibit!" Fairweather interrupted Tag-a-Long's explanation. "Sundown will be here before you know it, and we want to see everything we can!"
The group passed through some smaller exhibitions before reaching the next large hall, which lay at the heart of the museum: the Hall of Prehistory. A large circular room, lit from far above by sunlight through a decorative dome, was filled along its sides by informational placards, diagrams, and smaller fossils under glass, but on the podium at its center stood the main attraction: a colossal mounted skeleton which nearly stretched across the entire room. It had a massive, boxlike head with a thick skull and large, fierce teeth, a stocky ribcage supporting its barrel, miniscule arms yet long, powerful legs, and a lengthy tail serving as a counterbalance.
The children were fittingly wowed by such a large creature. Fluttershy herself had never seen anything like it, and could only imagine what it must've been like in life.
"What is that animal?" she asked aloud.
"That is the fiercest predator ever known to exist." Fairweather said with a slow, dramatic voice. "It lived many millions of years ago, and hunted just about any creature it wanted, snapping them up in its giant jaws!" Fairweather mimicked the motions of a stalking predator, and many of the fillies playfully hid behind their scout leaders.
"Yeah! Dat's a... ehhhh…" Diggs tried his best to mentally process the name on the placard. "Eeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I can never remember dis thing's name."
"Tyrannosaurus rex. " Cherry Sweet spoke up. "The 'tyrant lizard king.' I've seen it in books a few times."
"Yeah, what she said!" Diggs added.
"Yes indeed!" Fairweather lauded the filly. "The king of the long-extinct dinosaurs. This skeleton was actually discovered just a few miles away in the badlands. You Ponyvillians might be familiar with Dr. Fossil; this was one of her discoveries back when she was just a young mare. Now, the species T. rex was first described..."
As the museum director continued her miniature lecture about the towering skeleton behind her, Fluttershy slowly approached the exhibit, her thoughts racing as she tried to put flesh on the bones. The very thought of this ossified behemoth trekking across the ancient landscape in search of Celestia-knows-how-much food to satisfy itself was both exciting and terrifying to Fluttershy. She loved animals of all kinds, certainly, and she had stared down a red dragon without fear, but this "tyrant lizard" seemed different somehow. Utterly more primal, she thought. She looked up at the sunlight shining between its ribs and casting their shadow upon her. She shivered, both out of awe and fright, at the thought of a living, breathing creature such as this.
"Wow! " remarked Scootaloo, who had suddenly appeared beside her. The little orange filly propped her forehooves up on the exhibit railing. "Can you imagine what that thing must have been like? That would be wicked scary."
Fluttershy snapped out of her trance. "Yeah, I bet it would be, Scootaloo. Look at the sheer size of everything! The teeth, the jaws, the legs, the tail..."
"The arms. " Apple Bloom playfully added. "Ya got a 40-foot animal with arms like that. What's it even s'posed to do with those?"
"Gee, if only Petunia Paleo had come along on this trip." said Sweetie Belle, not far behind her. "She could tell us everything about it."
Without warning, Tag-a-Long appeared from somewhere behind them.
"I may not have my Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils badge yet," she began "but I've read that those arms are actually quite strong. They could have lifted a full-grown pony each. It's thought that--"
"If I'd wanted to know, Tag-a-Long, I would have asked. " Apple Bloom dryly cut her off.
"But you did ask. " The senior scout retorted, turning up her nose.
"Girls," Fluttershy leaned in "there's no need to squabble. Tag-a-Long just likes to show what she knows, is all."
"So you agree she's a know-it-all?" Sweetie Belle quipped, eliciting a scowl from the other filly.
"That's not what I said!" Fluttershy raised her voice only slightly. "I think you all need to spend some time away from each other until you can sit down and work out your problems. I don't want any more feelings to be hurt, understood?"
"Fine by me." Apple Bloom turned away snidely and trotted off with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in tow. Tag-a-Long huffed angrily and sat on her haunches, crossing her forelegs. The chaperone went to put a gentle wing on her shoulder.
"Tag-a-Long, I--"
But the filly brushed away her gesture, and trotted off in an opposite direction to be alone. Fluttershy sighed; maybe she wasn't cut out for this after all?
"I've worked hard to be the best scout I can be, to learn all I can, to achieve all I can..." Tag-a-Long muttered to herself as she curtly trotted across the room. "...and while it gets me merit badges, it doesn't get me friends."
"Tell me about it." came a familiar voice. Tag-a-Long turned around to locate the source; it was Cherry Sweet, who was sitting on the floor and looking up at an exhibit of index fossils in layers of earth, displaying geologic time. The orange-maned filly came up to sit beside the red-coated loner.
"Rose Garden said you were her junior officer, right? What's that mean?"
"I run things when she's not able to." Cherry spoke, even as her eyes continued absorbing information. "I like to think I'm pretty darn good at it, but, nopony seems to like it when I do things by the book. I don't know how else I'm supposed to do them, we have rules for a reason..."
"Ponyville doesn't have a permanent troop mother," Tag-a-Long looked at her hooves in contemplation "we're a pretty small town. But... I guess I do sort of pull most of the weight in the troop. I organize events, I pick camping spots, I help old mares cross the street..."
"Then you're a lot like me." The other filly responded. "You do thankless, yet crucial work. At least I have Rose Garden to appreciate my efforts. I feel sorry that you're essentially your own troop mother." Finally, Cherry's head turned to face her counterpart. She extended a forehoof.
"Miss...?"
"Tag-a-Long." She extended her own hoof to shake.
"Cherry Sweet." The red filly adjusted herself to face Tag-a-Long more directly, a sign she was more interested in the conversation. "So, what success did your confection sales yield this quarter? Clearly enough to come all the way from Ponyville."
Tag-a-Long cocked her head in confusion. "Uh...?"
Cherry gave a quick, unnoticed roll of her eyes. "How many cookies did you sell? "
As the two scouts discussed troop finance in regards to the sale of baked goods, Rose Garden and Fluttershy watched from afar.
"Well... at least she's making friends?" Fluttershy innocently spoke up.
"Yes..." Rose agreed "though I feel that both of them need acceptance from the fillies they lead, instead o' just validation from us or each other, but it's a start. Maybe tonight at the sleepover, we can devise somethin' ta' help them along?"
After several more exhibits and a trip through the gift shop, the fillies unpacked their bags on the floor of the planetarium; there, they would be spending the night, underneath cool, calming projections of the stars and planets.
"It's been a long time since we've had a sleepover together, hasn't it, girls?" Fluttershy happily cooed. The CMC could still remember the night they spent pursuing a lost chicken through the woods and coming face-to-face with a cockatrice.
"Yeah, it has been! This should be fun then!" Sweetie Belle replied. "Although, if you don't mind, I think I'll leave the lullabies to somepony else this time!" The four of them giggled at the memory of Sweetie Belle's earthshaking rendition of "Hush Now, Quiet Now."
As everypony was rolling out their sleeping bags beneath the soft, artificial starlight, Rose Garden approached Fluttershy and the CMC, guiding Tag-a-Long and Cherry Sweet, both of whom were comfortably swaddled in pajamas.
"Hi, all!" Rose said in a singsong manner. "I was just wonderin' if there was some room over here for a couple more little fillies? They seem like they'd make good friends, dont'cha know?" She gave a wink to Fluttershy, who winked back.
The Crusaders' faces grew incredulous.
"We're full up." said Sweetie Belle, with no pretense of sweetness. She rolled over in her sleeping bag, her back to them.
"Yeah," added Scootaloo "go find an encyclopedia to sleep in." The other two mimicked the unicorn's sleeping bag protest.
Fluttershy gasped. "Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! That was very rude! "
Before Rose Garden could attempt to reason with the fillies, her junior officer turned to her.
"With all due respect, ma'am, I told you this wouldn't work. C'mon, Tag-a-Long, let's go someplace else." She led her new friend away, who looked visibly hurt.
"Alright, everypony!" called Fairweather from the far doorway. "It's time for the sleepover! Diggs and I will be back for you in the morning, but until then, the front doors are locked! "
A couple of stallions, an orangish unicorn in uniform carrying a flashlight and a old, bearded Earth pony with a mop and bucket peeked their heads in. Diggs introduced them.
"Evrehponay, dis is Keyes, de security guard, and Grimes, de custodian! If you need something in de middle of de night, don't be afraid to ask dem for help!"
"Bathrooms and water fountains are right down this hallway, and there are snack machines in the lobby." Fairweather continued. "Please pick up after yourselves and don't touch any exhibits or wander around the halls at night. With that out of the way, everypony have a wonderful sleepover!"
"Goo'night, evrehponay!" Diggs added happily.
The fillies chimed out a cheery chorus of thank you and goodnight as Fairweather and Diggs left towards the front exit and the guard and janitor began their rounds throughout the building. The Vanhoover fillies were largely clustered around their troop mother, with the exception of Cherry Sweet, who was a short ways away next to Tag-a-Long, who had curled up with the encyclopedia she'd bought at the gift shop.
The Ponyville fillies, likewise, were sleeping around Fluttershy, with the CMCs directly at the foot of her sleeping bag. Fluttershy hoped that a good night's sleep would calm tensions between them and Tag-a-Long, and that an amicability could be reached on the train ride home. With that, she burrowed down into her pillow and fell asleep.
Author's Note
Sorry I couldn't have the whole story ready for Halloween, but I hope you'll enjoy what I've got... and the chapters to come.
In the halls of the museum, among collections of other antiquities, sat the museum's newest acquisition: a green gemstone, set within an ankh, suspended from a gold chain. The pendant had been recovered by the Anugypt Expedition less than a month ago, and was proudly on display in the Hall of Ancient Cultures. Not much was known about it, and it was assumed, pending further research, to be a simple necklace, likely belonging to a noble.
If only they had known the truth.
This war had gone on for too long, and it had taken her far too long to realize she was losing.
Anput had kept up the war with Baast's cats long after the fall of her husband, King Anubis, and had continually been on the run with the Crown of Anugypt since the day the capital fell. Now an aging jackal, she knew that her resistance would fail. It wouldn't be long before she either died or was killed, and the once-proud jackal kingdom would be absorbed into the ever-growing feline empire. But if it was time for this fight to end, Anput thought, she was going to end it well.
She had her remaining soldiers set the trap perfectly: they would lead the cats' pursuing force to the old temple of Jackal Barkal, where a gruesome battle had taken place some months before. Anput would be waiting there. The bodies of her fallen warriors still littered the ground where the battle had been lost, their bones bleached by the desert sun and picked clean by vultures, but that played perfectly into her plan.
Saying a prayer and turning to face the temple, Anput removed the pendant from around her neck, holding it aloft as the last vestiges of sunlight left, and a full moon began to rise.
As the light struck it, the green gem set within the ankh began to glow.
"O great gods and fallen kings, hear my plea." She spoke aloud. "Anugypt has fallen. The hated felines have all but stamped us out, and I know that the time of our demise approaches soon. But let our ancestors not say that we did not die a proud warrior's death."
The gem began to glow brighter and emit a low hum as the moon rose in the sky.
"Let me shed my blood for Anugypt. Let these warriors, brutally slaughtered by the enemy, live again to fight for Anugypt. Let us fight to avenge our fallen, our glory, our king... my husband."
The gem refracted the moonlight cast upon it, reflecting it with a green shade over the field of skeletons laying before the steps of the temple.
"Let the curse placed on this gem last for all time! That every full moon it sees, it shall raise the dead to fight with vengeance! So sayeth Anput, Queen of the Jackals and Lady of the Desert Winds!"
Indeed, the desert winds had nearly whipped up a sandstorm around the temple as the curse Anput's priests had crafted did its work. Just as her diversionary force arrived, they witnessed their fallen brethren live again. Bleached skeletons stood and shook sand from their bones. They re-equipped their weapons, clothing, and armor as muscle, sinew, organs, and flesh reformed around their frames. Finally, their eyes lit with a red, devilish glow, as they turned to face Anput on the temple steps, and she turned to face them.
The once elderly queen had become young again, her skin taut, her muscles firm, and her hair no longer white. With steely determination, she spotted the army of cats on the horizon. She drew her khopesh and saluted her army.
"Tonight... we will die for Anugypt."
The army roared to life, and, with a flick of her wrist, charged forth to meet their hated enemy. Anput stopped to hide her amulet beneath a stone in the temple's walk before going out to join in her final battle.
Fluttershy slept soundly, nestled in her plush sleeping bag on the smooth floor of the planetarium. She wasn't aware of anything beyond her dreams until a small hoof began nudging her shoulder. Slowly, she wakened, turning her head and eyes towards the blurry disturbance.
"Fluttershy? " Scootaloo asked in a whisper. "Can you come with me to the bathroom? "
Reluctantly, Fluttershy emerged from her cocoon of warmth, the air around her chilling her skin and igniting her senses more fully. "Alright, Scootaloo, come with me. "
As the two made their way for the doors, Fluttershy glanced about at the sleeping fillies, each adorable in her own right. Sweetie Belle was curled up in her sleeping bag like a lady, whereas Apple Bloom was slowly wriggling out of hers. Toola Roola and Coconut Cream were practically sharing a sleeping bag via proximity. Tag-a-Long still held her book in her grasp. Cherry Sweet nibbled her hoof in her sleep like a foal.
"You know it's perfectly safe in this museum. " Fluttershy said once they'd entered the hallway.
"Well, I know. " said Scootaloo. "It just seemed like a long ways to go alone. This place is a little... eerie when the sun goes down. "
"Most public places are, because you're used to seeing ponies in them. " Fluttershy held the door to the mares' room open. "I'll wait out here. "
Scootaloo rushed inside and her chaperone took a seat on the floor, staring up at the ceiling and counting the decorative tiles. While she waited, one of the Vanhoover fillies came by and asked where the vending machines were. Though Fluttershy usually discouraged midnight snacking, she pointed the way and the little one trotted off.
The Amulet of Anput sat behind glass, displayed among other relics of ancient Anugypt in the Hall of Ancient Cultures. Above, glass panes in the ceiling let in the light of the rising moon.
A full moon. The first one it had seen in countless centuries.
As the light filtered down through the night air, it slipped silently into the museum and cast itself upon the halls.
Upon the exhibits.
Upon the amulet.
The green gem set in the golden ankh began to glow.
After some time, Scootaloo emerged from the restroom.
"Alright, " she yawned "let's get back to sleep. "
Fluttershy put a guiding wing around the diminutive Pegasus and began in the direction of the planetarium.
"So, how did you like the tour of the museum? "
"It was fun! There's definitely a lot to learn here; if I didn't have my Cutie Mark already, I'd have to try being a historian! "
"If you like learning, Scootaloo, you'd probably get along great with Tag-a-Long, if you'd give her a chance. "
The orange filly sighed. "Fluttershy, it's... more complicated than that. The girls and I, in the past, have tried to-- "
Suddenly, a great noise echoed from somewhere down the halls. It sounded as though metal were being wrought from its place, something torn out of the wall and thrown to the floor. Whether or not anypony else had woken up, Fluttershy didn't know, but she was certainly wide awake now.
"Good gracious, what was that?!" Fluttershy said at full volume.
"I don't know..." replied Scootaloo, looking vexed "...should we go look?"
"We might as well, since we're closer to it." Came her response "The janitor or the guard might need help."
The hallways past the bathrooms were less well-lit, so Fluttershy briefly returned to the sleeping area to retrieve a flashlight. Holding it under her wing, she and Scootaloo spent the next several minutes searching the connected halls together for the source of the clamor.
"We've looked just about everywhere in this part of the museum." Scootaloo pondered, her small legs taking several steps to Fluttershy's few. "Are you sure it's in here?"
"It's got to be, don't you think?" She replied. "That sound wasn't so far away as to come from another part of the map. It has to be in one of the halls near where we were."
"Still," the younger pony continued "you'd think we'd have found something by now. That noise was way too loud to just be the pipes or the vents or the--"
Scootaloo abruptly stopped talking; her eyes widened and her jaw fell open.
"Scootaloo?" asked Fluttershy "What is it?" Suddenly, the mare turned to look where her flashlight was shining, and she took on a similar expression.
Standing in the beam was a massive beast covered in smooth scales. It had ripped a water fountain out of the wall, and, in doing so, ruptured a pipe so it could quench its thirst. Many animals can smell water, Fluttershy thought, but its nose must be exceptionally adept to detect it from within plumbing. Water pooled at its three-toed feet, equipped with giant claws. Further up its powerful legs was a sturdy torso, bearing arms with two-fingered hands; disproportionately small, but very muscular. A thicker neck than Fluttershy had ever seen carried a truly massive skull, bearing jaws that could grab her in one bite. A long, muscular tail swayed behind the animal as it knelt to drink. Its scales were a tannish color, but it bore red markings around its eyes and down its body in the form of stripes.
Neither pony could believe what they were seeing. It took a moment for the realization to hit: this was Tyrannosaurus rex , in flesh and blood, standing not 100 feet away from them.
Fluttershy gave a small gasp in fright, and the beast looked up. Its eyes burned as red as hellfire, and seemed to glow from out of the darkness. With a low rumble in its throat, it raised its head curiously. It was inspecting them.
Scootaloo screamed from a place of sheer terror. Without another moment of hesitation, she began to flee in the direction she'd come, and Fluttershy followed less than a second later. The great beast lurched its foot forward in a step towards them.
In its mind, the hunt had begun.
Author's Note
In the next chapter...real.
"WHY IS IT ALIVE?!" Fluttershy tried her best to ask while running at full gallop.
"WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME?! " replied Scootaloo, who was barely keeping pace. Behind the fleeing ponies, the great dinosaur followed them in a hungry trot, not quite roaring, but emitting loud growling sounds from its nostrils.
"We need to warn the others!" Fluttershy said, guiding Scootlaoo through a sharp curve to try and lose their pursuer. As she drew closer to the planetarium, a light flicked on inside her head: there was still a filly roaming the halls, the one who had gone to the vending machines. She stopped abruptly about 20 feet from the doors; the dinosaur still hadn't rounded the corner.
"Scootaloo, you go in and warn the others, get them someplace safe. I'll go try and find--"
Suddenly, a scream came from the opposite end of the hallway. A small pink filly adorned with snack food was being stared down by a massive, salivating reptile.
"Fluttershy!" Scootaloo called as she ran towards the doors. "Try using The Stare on it!"
She gasped. "The Stare! " Filled with a jolt of confidence, Fluttershy dashed through the air towards the predator, calling until it turned to look at her.
"Now listen here, you big bully!" She locked eyes with the flaming red orbs set in the massive skull. "I'm not going to stand by while you terrorize these..."
Fluttershy slowed the longer she stared into the dinosaur's eyes.
Something was wrong.
"...innocent... little... fillies..."
Not only did her trademark tactic seem to be failing her, she felt a sharp pain inside her head as the tyrannosaur's eyes burned into her own. It was as if somepony had heated a railroad spike until it was red-hot, then plunged it into her temple. The more Fluttershy tried to exert The Stare, the more intense the pain became.
The creature emitted a growling bellow and attempted to snap its jaws around the flying mare, who was just able to flap out of reach. The filly below made a mad dash for the door in a blur of fearful noise and tears; all the commotion she caused made the tyrannosaur turn its attention downwards.
Fluttershy feebly attempted to grab the animal's head and intervene, but it forcefully butted her with its snout, and she landed on the floor a distance away. She was just able to clamber to her hooves to witness a squealing pink filly being lifted delicately in monstrous jaws lined with eight-inch teeth.
"NO!" Fluttershy instinctively screamed, reaching a hoof out in vain. The behemoth down the hall turned to look at her with those blazing eyes. Those malicious, unfeeling eyes. The filly cried, knowing what was about to happen.
There was a tense silence between Fluttershy and the creature. The pain in her head was beginning to subside, but she barely noticed over the rapidity of her heartbeat.
The creature forced its massive jaws closed, bisecting the filly in a gush of blood and spinal fluid. The sound was positively sickening, a combination of a living voice being killed, the soft squish of viscera, the crunch of bone, and the splatter of entrails on the polished floor. Fluttershy gave a gasp-scream, trying to hold back her tears and the contents of her stomach. She slowly inched back towards the doors, unable to pull away from the shocking sight. Scootaloo dashed out and pulled her inside by the tail by the time the T. rex had finished its meal.
Inside the planetarium, everypony was awake and alert. Scootaloo had convinced them of some vague danger, but left off the specifics for fear they wouldn't believe her. Rose Garden was performing a headcount of her troop, Tag-a-Long of hers.
"That's everypony from Ponyville." The little filly said as she finished tallying. Scootaloo approached the group with the chaperone in tow.
"Da, da, duh-da... " Rose Garden hummed nervously as she counted the fillies in her head. "Wait... where's Bubblegum?"
"It ate her... " Fluttershy said quietly, her face still a mixture of shock and panic.
"What? " Rose asked, unsure of what she'd just heard.
"It ate her... " Fluttershy murmured again. "That... thing ate her..."
"Ate her?" The troop mother asked. "What do you mean, ate her? What the hay exactly is goin' on here?"
Fluttershy felt something snap within her mind, and she grabbed the mare's shoulders. "THE DAMN THING ATE HER!"
As soon as the words had left Fluttershy's lips, a roar came from the hall that shook the ground. Something big impacted the wall opposite them. Some bricks above the doors were being pushed out. The fillies all collectively screamed and huddled around the adults in the room. It only took a couple more rams before a great head emerged, a foot crushed the door frame, and a body pushed into the room. The great jaws snarled, the snout spattered with blood and pieces of Bubblegum stuck between its teeth.
A shrill chorus of fright rose from the girls as the herd of fillies rushed helter-skelter away from the great beast. From an opposing door, the orange form of Keyes, the security guard, burst through, wielding a flashlight and a truncheon.
"Get back!" He yelled above the clamor "Retreat to one of the bigger halls, find shelter wherever you can!"
"Come on, everypony!" Rose Garden called, organizing as many fillies as she could. "To the Hall of the Animal Kingdom! This way!"
Fluttershy managed to snap out of her trance and, along with the Crusaders, began corralling fillies towards the escape route.
"Hey!" Keyes shone his flashlight in the creature's eyes and twirled his weapon in readiness. The titan briefly recoiled in blindness, but quickly identified its next target. The guard's club was useless against the creature's skull plate as it leaned down to clamp its jaws around his upper half. His spine quickly broken, Keyes was shaken in the beast's maw like a ragdoll before being dropped to the cold floor below. The hunter's nostrils inspected the limp corpse, but it appeared to be turned away by the scent of his uniform. This sacrifice was enough of a distraction for the Filly Scouts to slip away into another exhibit.
"Sweet Celestia, what are we going to do?! " Fluttershy asked amid panicked breaths. "This is a nightmare! That thing just destroyed somepony!"
"One thing we are goin' ta' do is calm down. " said Rose Garden, grabbing Fluttershy's shoulder with a hoof. "We can't make wise decisions if we're freakin' out, dont'cha know?"
Fluttershy took a few deep breaths to center herself, even as fillies huddled around her in fear.
"Okay... " she said calmly. "What should I do?"
"I'll admit I don't know how best ta' deal with somethin' on this here scale," Rose explained in level-headed fashion "but I know we have some things we can do, and some things we can't. We can't try and get outta here the front way, because that big beastie will just barge its way through the glass and be loose in the City o' Vanhoover. We can't, as far as I know, put up much of a fight against that thing, but we may be able ta' hide from it. We can try ta' shelter in place, like we would with a storm or some other force o' nature, or we can keep movin' and hope we can evade that thing better than it can track us."
Cherry Sweet approached the two adults, looking a little shaken, but none the worse for wear.
"I'm ready to help execute whatever plan you both deem wisest, ma'am."
Fluttershy bit her hoof in thought. Which would be better? Sheltering in place could be a good option, except that if they were found, they'd have become a living buffet. Staying on the move might be the better option... but there were only so many places they could go to, and no doubt the dinosaur would be hunting them the entire time. And what would they even do once the sun came up? Would that thing still be stalking them?
"I wish Petunia Paleo were here." Sweetie Belle mused. "She could probably tell us how to handle a dinosaur..."
"If only there were somepony who had her merit badge in Wilderness Survival..." Tag-a-Long added coyly.
Apple Bloom scowled. "I don't think knowin' how to build a lean-to is gonna help us survive bein' chased by a meat-eating dinosaur, you dumb bi--"
The filly's bout of anger was cut off, both by Fluttershy's wing and a low roar from somewhere within the museum.
"We'll discuss your choice of words later, Apple Bloom!" Fluttershy reprimanded. "For now, everypony hide!"
"You heard the mare!" Cherry Sweet shouted to her troop. "Take cover!"
Several of the fillies took cover among the taxidermized animals, along with their guardians, while others slipped off into side hallways or hid in the crooks of doors. Ponies could be heard shushing each other as they hunkered down to save their lives. The Crusaders pushed in close around Fluttershy, hiding behind the dense foliage of one of the exhibits.
In the distant halls, the noise from the great reptile was getting closer. As it drew near, the huffs from its great nostrils could be heard investigating the doorway, probing it for a weak point to thrust its great body through. The fillies nearest said door tried to quietly move away from it, silent terror spread across their faces. Finally, the ravenous beast burst through the doorway into the room; several fillies scattered impulsively, screaming shrilly, but the dinosaur was too distracted by the new sights and smells presented by the taxidermied wildlife. Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo simultaneously slapped a hoof over Sweetie Belle's mouth when they noticed she was about to scream.
The hunter probed the stuffed giraffe with its drooling snout, standing tall enough to look it in the eye. The great jaws opened with a snarl and snapped the model's head off, stuffing floating to the floor as the predator thrashed its kill about. It wasn't long, however, before it realized that what it was gnawing upon wasn't food; dropping the crushed lump of cotton, the beast turned its head to focus on a movement spotted in its peripheral vision. It took two large steps into the swampland exhibit, trampling fake reeds and a mounted cragadile to snap at one of the Vanhoover fillies who tried desperately to hide, then run. Her screams were loud already, increasing in volume as the monster sunk its teeth into her hind leg and tossed her into the air, and going silent as she disappeared behind its cage of teeth.
Fluttershy poked her head up from behind the wings she'd used to shield the Crusaders' eyes. Glancing over, she caught Rose Garden motioning to her as she guided all the fillies she could find quietly out a nearby set of doors.
"Come on, girls. " Fluttershy whispered as she carefully led the three fillies towards the exit, keeping themselves low in the plastic undergrowth. Across the exhibit hall, the tyrannosaur occupied itself with another taxidermied target, yet again stymied by a mouthful of cotton.
Outside the Hall of the Animal Kingdom, the herd of ponies ducked into one of the many side hallways that crisscrossed the museum and connected its larger exhibits. Fluttershy took a quick count of all her fillies; Ponyville hadn't yet lost any. Vanhoover, aside from the two she had seen devoured, was still missing four, likely those which had been scattered by the dinosaur's appearance. Hopefully, Fluttershy thought, they were finding safe places to hide.
"Okay... staying put didn't work like we'd hoped there now." Rose Garden said, turning to Fluttershy while sheltering some fillies under her forelegs.
"What are we gonna do , Fluttershy?!" Sweetie Belle cried, tears streaming down her cheeks and terror in her voice. The other fillies around her starting bombarding their chaperone with similar questions.
Fluttershy, though still horrified by this entire situation, had managed to calm herself enough to think clearly under pressure.
"Its senses must be more keen than we thought." she said. "We'll have to keep moving... try to confuse it... maybe find someplace small that it can't reach. Who here remembers the layout of the museum?"
There was a brief pause in the frightened clamor, everypony going silent to await a response. Suddenly, one came from Tag-a-Long, who emerged from the back of the crowd.
"I snagged a map of the museum on our way in earlier today!" she proclaimed, holding up the rolled-up paper. "I, uh... I like maps..."
"It's a good thing that you do... " Fluttershy thought to herself as she took the map and unfurled it between herself and Rose Garden.
"Okay, we're right here." Fluttershy pointed with her hoof to their position, in another corridor a ways over from the animal hall. "We could try and split up to find someplace safe... o-or maybe we should stay on the move together?"
Rose could see Fluttershy's trepidation starting to show through, so she put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
"Dearie, if we do decide to split up, I think I've got a spell or two that'll let me get a word through to ya. I'll stick around if ya need me to, though. Let's face it, this here is... this is a nightmare. I don't fault ya for being' scared, Fluttershy; I'd be absolutely frightened outta my wits and huddled in the corner if it weren't for all o' these fillies needin' me to be strong for 'em. So I encourage you, sweetheart, to summon up all the strength an' bravery you got in your little heart, because our objective now is to keep these girls as safe as we can."
Fluttershy wiped away a tear from her eye and smiled gently at Rose. She gently put a wing around the older mare in a wordless show of thanks. As Tag-a-Long and Cherry Sweet organized the troops behind them, Fluttershy turned her attention back to the map.
"I was thinkin'..." Rose said, gesturing to the map "that if we split up, we could take routes either side of this hall and search for those four missing fillies."
"And we can also look for a safe place to hide and regroup afterwards." added Fluttershy.
Rose nodded. "If that thing comes towards ya, try ta' lead it away from the planetarium. I got a feelin' that the lost fillies may be lookin' for someplace familiar ta' hide if they aren't anywhere nearby, don'tcha know."
"Alright..." Fluttershy nodded an affirmative and gave a nervous sigh. "Here's hoping this works."
Rose turned and presented the map to Cherry Sweet, asking her to memorize it. After the filly took a couple of minutes to practically stare through the paper, she nodded, and Rose passed it back to Fluttershy.
"You hold onto the map, dearie. Cherry Sweet here can commit anything ta' memory when she puts her mind to it."
Tag-a-Long turned to briefly regard her counterpart. "Good luck."
Cherry briskly stood at attention. "I wish you a fortuitous expedition as well, Tag-a-Long."
"Alright girls," Fluttershy said, turning to Tag-a-Long, the Crusaders, and the rest of her Ponyville troop. "Let's move. Quickly and quietly."
She prayed the night would be over soon.
Author's Note
Don't know how good this chapter turned out compared to what I'd had in mind, but hey, at least I finally drew first blood in this horror story!
I hope to make it even better from here! 😈
For a while, everything was silent; even the light hoof-falls and shallow breathing of the sneaking ponies seemed to disappear into the dense, pervasive quiet they hoped to maintain. Fluttershy lead her line of fillies down the halls like a mother duck, though far less carefree. She flicked on her flashlight only when she needed to, not wanting to draw any undue attention. For what felt like an eternity, they searched one side of the building for the missing fillies, the sound of silence enveloping them in an uneasy comfort. The danger felt far away, at least for a few minutes, and that helped keep every pony calm.
Then they found one of the fillies, and the gravity of their situation fell upon them once more.
At first, she was just a flicker of eyeshine in the low light, before Fluttershy heard a tiny whimpering voice, one that tried to speak up but was too scared. Fluttershy's ears perked up and swiveled in the direction of the sound before she flicked on her flashlight; there, hiding in the crook of an overturned bench, was a little purplish filly with a dark mane and chartreuse eyes. Her uniform--and the fact that Fluttershy didn't know her--indicated she was from the Vanhoover troop.
"Hey. " Fluttershy said in a gentle whisper. "I know you're scared, we all are. But we need to stick together. I promise I'll get you back with your troop mother, just come with us for now, okay? " She extended a wing, and the little pony scurried underneath it with her tail between her legs. A shimmering spot on the floor suggested she'd had an accident while huddled in fear.
"It's gonna be okay. " Fluttershy soothed. The CMC gathered close to them both to offer comfort, as well as ask questions.
"What's your name? " whispered Sweetie Belle.
"V-Violet Dusk..." she said, shakily.
"Have you seen any of the other Vanhoover fillies out here? " asked Apple Bloom.
"I-I ran from that thing with one of them..." Violet replied "...b-but... but she's gone now..."
Fluttershy cast a shush over her shoulder to remind the group of anxious fillies to keep their voices down. "Where did you last see the dinosaur? "
"I-I-In one of the halls outside the animal room...th-that way..." she jutted a hoof toward the abyssal darkness of the deeper hallways from which she'd fled.
Fluttershy nodded and made a mental note of roughly where that was in relation to how far they'd traveled. "Alright, girls. " she began "Let's backtrack a ways and figure out what to do next. Last thing we want to do is head in the direction of trouble. "
As the Ponyville troop plus one began trekking back the way they'd come, it wasn't long before Fluttershy heard a voice echoing in her head. She covered her head with her wings in fear at first, before she realized what was actually happening: it was Rose Garden attempting to communicate with her.
"Hold up!" she quickly squeaked, and the fillies stopped moving. "I think I'm getting some kind of... magic thought message from Rose Garden..."
"Huh. " murmured Sweetie Belle. "I wonder if I can learn to do that?"
"Fluttershy? I don't know if you'll be able to hear this very well. " The troop mother's voice came through slightly warbled, but otherwise, Fluttershy could hear the message fine. "My group, we found two o' the other fillies over on our side of the building. One of 'em's a little hurt, but we've bandaged her up an' we think she'll be fine. Hope you've had success as well. Meet up with us over in the botanical exhibit an' we'll figure out what ta' do next, oukay? "
"Got it!" Fluttershy said under her breath, happy that the technique had worked. "C'mon girls, Rose wants us to meet up at the botany hall. Remember, quickly and quietly!" The patter of little hooves stayed as quiet as it could as the herd scurried towards an outer edge of the museum's layout. Eventually, the group arrived in the small exhibit hall, various flowers and medicinal herbs pressed flat behind its glass panels, and the Vanhoover troop arrived not long after. Violet Dusk rushed forward and embraced Rose Garden as soon as they did.
"I'm glad ta' see you're safe, Vi." Rose said in a hushed voice as she lovingly patted the filly. "But where's Ocean Blue?"
Violet gulped as she held back tears. "She's gone."
The fillies of her troop quietly gasped and whispered worriedly among themselves, except of course for Cherry Sweet. Rose put a hoof on the purple filly's shoulder and tried to comfort her.
"Now dear, I know this is beyond scary, but--"
The filly interrupted her, careful to keep her voice low but unable to stop her tears from coming.
"It bit off her head. " Her lower lip throbbed and her stopped nose altered her tone. "It caught up to her and bit off her head... "
Some of Violet's troop mates wept quietly in their huddled mass behind Rose. Cherry Sweet, who stood beside her, wore a mixture of emotions that Fluttershy tried to pick apart. There was anger, she thought, and consternation, as well as a general fear she was trying her best to hide. Seasoning it all was a sadness that Cherry likely didn't know how to express; sure, she considered her troop to be frivolous and unprofessional, but she surely still cared about them. Having them die around her wasn't something she knew how to process--and for that matter, Fluttershy didn't really know how to, either. Still, she was able to tell a lot about the filly's current mindset just from a furrowed brow, flattened ears, and a slightly agape mouth.
As Rose attempted to soothe her group of fillies, Fluttershy stepped forward with a plan of sorts.
"Rose?" she gently intruded. "This just came to me, but... I think I know how we can better keep track of everypony... maybe. "
"And what would that be, dear?" Rose turned to look at her as Fluttershy performed a quick headcount of the fillies in both troops.
"Well, there are 22 kids here. I figured we might be able to manage them better if combine both troops, then split them into smaller groups, each with a leader to keep track of those. Then, you and I could coordinate both of them a little better."
"Go on."
"Well, uh... how about we split them into trios or duos? That way each 'leader' filly only has to keep track of one or two others. And they'd report to us. We'd all try to stay together, of course, but if one group needed to break away and hide, for instance, we'd know who was in it and where they might be."
Rose slowly nodded her head before glancing at an eavesdropping Cherry Sweet, who emphatically nodded her head.
"I 'spose I don't have any better ideas."
After explaining the proposed situation to the scouts, Fluttershy and Rose Garden divided the fillies into six groups of three, with three each under their respective supervision. The remaining four were put into pairs, with each scoutmaster acting as the third member of their group. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stayed in one group, with Apple Bloom being delegated to lead another; her place was filled by Lily Longsocks. Tag-a-Long led the third group under Fluttershy's watch, and Cherry Sweet, naturally, led one of Rose's groups. Each group was an assortment of fillies from both troops; after all, they were all trying to survive together. They quickly left the botanical hall and, not wanting to stay in one place--or even one portion of the building--for too long, made their way across the building in the direction of the planetarium. Faint yet thunderous footsteps could be heard in the distance, as the Tyrannosaurus prowled in search of more prey.
The once comforting room full of sleeping bags and false starlight was now a mess. Brick and mortar littered the floor in places where the creature had forced its way in or out, and the broken body of Keyes, the security guard, lay where it had been dropped, flashlight still shining against the far wall. Once they arrived, Rose and Fluttershy encouraged the students to quickly gather any essentials they may need--food and drink, medicine, or security blankets--and regroup for a quick escape. Once they left this room, they may not be back for a while, if at all; expeditious bathroom breaks were also encouraged.
Off to one side of the sleeping area, Tag-a-Long and Cherry Sweet tried to commit to memory everything the former's encyclopedia had to say about dinosaurs, knowing that the book itself would be too heavy to carry around with them. From behind them, Apple Bloom slowly approached, her saddlebags filled with a few snacks she'd brought. Though it was a bit of an awkward time, she decided she would try to patch things up at least a little bit between them; in this scenario, their survival might depend on it. Silently, she pecked them on the shoulder; the two turned to face her, looking a little irked to have their important business interrupted. Apple Bloom quickly reached within her bag, retrieving a shiny apple and offering it to either of them.
"Are, uh... you two hungry?"
Tag-a-Long's face softened, but only for a moment. "Thanks." she said, accepting the offered fruit.
Cherry Sweet waved it away with a hoof. "I prefer oranges."
Apple Bloom let what would have normally been an emotional response combust inside her, knowing this was not the place nor time to discuss the pros and cons of various fruits. Instead, she simply smiled and peered over their shoulders at the open book.
"Whatcha readin' there?" she asked.
"We're trying to learn a little bit about our adversary." said Cherry Sweet. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."
"Unfortunately, " added Tag-a-Long, wiping apple from her mouth "whoever wrote this book has never seen a dinosaur alive, so they can't give us survival tips. It's mostly plain facts based on the fossils."
Apple Bloom leaned in closer, seeing a page with a variety of prehistoric animals illustrated. In the section on T. rex, there was an image comparing the size of its skull to an average pony, and another comparing its tooth to a banana, yet another inferior fruit. She couldn't help but get a little nervous at being reminded of the thing that had chased them out of this very room not even 30 minutes ago.
Apple Bloom glanced over her shoulder at her friends; Sweetie Belle was hyperventilating into a brown paper bag as Scootaloo patted her back and waited patiently to get her lunch back. Fluttershy was escorting a couple of fillies back from the restroom, and various other ponies were nervously milling about as they prepared their essential supplies to leave again. Rose Garden had taken Keyes' flashlight and gently draped a blanket she'd brought over his deceased form out of respect. After taking a moment to ponder everything that had happened thus far on this hellish night, Apple Bloom turned back to her former antagonist.
"Tag-a-Long... I... want to apologize for--"
Her verbal reconciliation was cut short, however, by Rose and Fluttershy rallying the groups back together and preparing to move them out.
"Alright, scouts!" called Rose, loud enough to be heard but careful not to let her voice resonate down the halls. "We're goin' ta' reform our little groups and hustle right along down this here hallway."
"We're going to move through the insect exhibit and into the Hall of Marine Life." Fluttershy continued, gesturing at the map with her wing. "Assuming there's no trouble, we're going to try to find Grimes, the janitor, and see if he needs help. There are a couple different paths we can follow out of marine life, so be sure to pay attention to where everypony else is heading, okay?"
Apple Bloom whirled around to try and find Tag-a-Long again, but she and Cherry Sweet had already reformed their groups. The little farmpony decided to get back to hers as well; she figured she could use a bit more time to figure out exactly what she wanted to say.
The equine convoy carefully moved out of the planetarium, their knapsacks and saddlebags carrying some food and little else to avoid slowing them down. They skirted the edge of the museum once again, careful to not stray too close to the monster's last known location; one unfortunate consequence of this, however, was that there was only one way to reach their destination from the planetarium, and it involved walking right through the place where Bubblegum had been killed. Her still-fresh viscera lay in a slick, shimmering puddle on the floor, staining it with blood. There was no trace connecting it to the pony it had belonged to except for an assortment of unopened vending machine snacks laying nearby. Flies were already starting to swarm it, and many students became distressed at the sight of it, trying their hardest to avoid stepping in the drying puddle that spread out around it. A wet, pinkish organ coated in greasy caul fat and some other assorted bits of meat were all that was left of the poor filly, the leftovers of the tyrant's first meal.
Fluttershy swallowed hard as she passed it, looking away and trying not to breathe through her nose. She hoped, desperately, that no more fillies would meet their end tonight.
Author's Note
~~"Oukay" is not a typo, it's a quirk of her charmin' accent, dont'cha know?~~
